Learn Chinese Software Store

Fluenz Version F2: Mandarin 1+2+3 (Win/Mac) with software DVDs, audio CDs, podcasts, and Navigator. Learn Chinese with the latest upgrade.

The only interactive language program featuring real teachers who guide learners every step of the way, explaining in English the intricacies and shortcuts of Chinese. Ideal for those who thrive in a teacher-oriented learning environment, who need to understand how the language works in plain English, and who seek relevant Chinese they can actually use while in China.The team behind the application combines recent Harvard and Cornell graduates, some of whom went to China to learn the language and understand the specific challenges for English-speakers, seasoned Chinese teachers trained in the teaching of Mandarin to non-Chinese learners, and veterans of technology start-ups.Fluenz Mandarin 1+2+3 is composed of 75 full sessions that each include up to two hours and thirty minutes of training. Every session features a set of clear, common sense tools that progressively increase the learner’s range of communication. Instead of endless expressions that follow simple present tense sentences no one really needs (This is an apple, The woman runs), Fluenz builds steadily from useful structures like questions and commands (Where can I get a taxi?, Stop here), and useful vocabulary (restaurants, transportation, directions, etc.) to more and more complex speech. The third level focuses on work-related activities through intensive training with the past tense, the present progressive, subtle forms of description, measure words, conditionals, and strategies for using the right word order.The only interactive Mandarin program offering an immersive environment that recreates the best elements of great one-on-one tutoring. A Great Teacher on Your Computer
Discover Mandarin through the power of two great tutors with the comprehensive 1+2+3 program. The Fluenz custom-made approach guides you in English every step of the way through the challenges of Mandarin, while immersing you in the beauty of Chinese culture. A Proven Track Record
Fluenz’s unique approach is currently being

• The most comprehensive digital program to learn Chinese, Fluenz Mandarin 1+2+3 will guide you in English through the challenges of Mandarin with a proven system.
• Language tutors Yi Wei and Sonia Gil, recent graduates from Harvard and Cornell, will take you every step of the way by recreating a one-on-one tutoring experience that places you in real-world contexts and immerses you in a fascinating culture.
• Fluenz blends beautiful full-motion video with a range of engaging, interactive workouts to improve your reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills — including a recording engine to perfect your accent.
• Fluenz’s unique approach is currently being used by elite units of the US Navy, senior personnel at the UN and UNICEF, executives of Fortune 500 companies, and students at Harvard Business School and other leading universities.
• Includes Mandarin 1+2 and Mandarin 3 DVD-ROMs with a total of 75 sessions that take up to 2 hours and 30 minutes each, two audio CDs for additional training, downloadable podcasts, and the handy Fluenz Navigator for on-the-go referencing of important words and phrases.

Rating: (out of 16 reviews)

List Price: $ 519.00
Price: $ 418.00

Fluenz Version F2: Mandarin 1+2+3 (Win/Mac) with software DVDs, audio CDs, podcasts, and Navigator. Learn Chinese with the latest upgrade. Reviews

Review by AmazonFan:

…(Updated as of 2/2/10)…

Note that this a modified version of my review from the 1+2 Product (which I rated 4 star). I changed my rating to 5 star for this particular version, as the 3rd cd for an extra makes this product great value, IMO.

So I just finished all of the lessons in the software. That alone should give this product a couple of stars….I have previously tried many different ways to learn Chinese (books, CDs etc), but each time, I have given up within 3 weeks.

This product really kept me motivated, because it helped me retain the material! As other reviewers have mentioned, there are a ton of exercises to drill the new vocabulary in, which is so helpful. As background, I am a person who has a really tough time retaining languages….I took 5yrs of French back in High School, but the material just went in one ear and out the other. So the fact that I retained so much due to this product speaks volumes about its effectiveness.

I attempted each lesson twice….one time, I’d take the full lesson, trying all of the exercises, and typing out all of the answers. The 2nd time, I’d skip some of the questions which I knew well. Now that I am done, I plan on trying all the lessons one more time, just to become a little quicker at translating the spoken Chinese (there are 2 really nice lessons at the end which have long sections of dialogue….its a good way to test how much you have progressed).

So what have I learned? My wife, who is Chinese born and speaks fluent Mandarin can understand most of the phrases that I say now, which is nice. I haven’t learned enough to carry out a 1min + conversation with her yet, but that’s to be expected, since this product is an introduction to Mandarin. I can basically just ask her a few random questions. I’ll need to move on to a different product now to further my education. If you just want to be able to survive in China on a short vacation, you should be okay (eg you do learn how to order at a restaurant, give instructions to a cab driver, etc).

Each unit takes about 1-2hrs, depending on your speed. It consists of a thorough review of a spoken passage by the instructor, and then several extremely helpful exercises, which include tasks like speaking the words aloud, matching mandarin with english, and translating english words and phrases into Mandarin (the tones need to be correct as well!)

PROS (keeping this short, because many other pros mentioned in other reviews – see Fluenz 1+2)

-As I stated above, this product really works. I am pleasantly surprised with my progress…..not to mention the fact that it kept me motivated to stick with it all the way to the end.

-There are several exercises that concentrate on pronunciation. The exercises where you tape yourself speaking are especially useful.

-The podcasts are great! Hopefully they are making more of them. It was a great idea to combine the guy who was just learning Mandarin, with the expert. His mistakes combined with her tips were so helpful (IMO this section is more helpful that the tips given by the main instructor in the software piece).

-There are 2 exercises which are devoted to tones. These are probably two of the most useful. As you may know, Mandarin is heavily dependent on tones. These exercises say several different words, and you need to figure out which tone is being used. I found this extremely difficult in some cases (maybe its just me?).

-As you progress further into the product, you are tested on words that you learned a couple of sessions back. It’s a good way to keep everything fresh.

-The customer service is great. They answered my emails within the hour.

CONS (most of these are very minor – more nitpicky than anything else)

-(Note this particular comment refers to 1/2 only. CD 3 has a different instructor, who is a native Mandarin speaker): At the start of each lesson, Sonia takes us through the passage, and gives some comments. While I did like the concept of having an instructor taking us through the dialogue, I do have some complaints about this section. First, and most important, Sonia’s pronunciation is not great (as my Mandarin speaking wife pointed out… she actually started laughing when she heard Sonia’s words in a number of cases). I don’t know why they just didn’t get someone who speaks both Chinese and English fluently to teach this (there are many people who could do this, for example the girl in the podcasts). That said, the exercises are spoken by someone else, and therefore have the correct pronunciation. Also, I didn’t really think the comments offered by Sonia about her experiences added that much value at all (although her trick to remember the word for restaurant was nice).

-In the exercises where you need to type in the pinyin, and there are multiple ways of saying things which have been taught, the software only accepts the 1 answer. This can get frustrating when you think you have made a mistake, but indeed you are correct. Fortunately, I had someone to ask when I was unsure. But it would have been nice if they programmed 2-3 answers, particularly because they taught 2-3 options in those cases. (Update: CD3 has addressed this issue)

-When you get an answer incorrect, and you press on the answer button, your original response disappears. Sometimes it becomes difficult to remember where you made the error (particularly when your mistake was to use the wrong tone), because you have nothing available to compare to the correct answer. (Update: CD3 has addressed this issue)

Despite these cons (which are all minor), I would recommend this product (and already have to several people).

UPDATE from 2/2/10:

-I bought the 3rd cd about a month ago, and I am now 2/3 of the way through (like I mentioned above, I really am learning a lot, and it is “sticking” in my head, so I motivated practice about an hr a day). The 3rd cd is great. All of the cons that I mentioned above have been rectified.

The instructor (can’t remember her name) is awesome! I find her comments extremely useful. She provides a lot more additional information about the topics that you are learning, and in addition she provides thorough explanations about the appropriate grammar. I found this much more helpful than the color coding used in CDs 1/2.

Review by Terry Nienhuis:

I have been using Rosetta Stone Mandarin for two years and Fluenz Mandarin for about three months. I spent July 2008 and July 2009 in Nanjing, China, and I am about to spend nearly four months in Nanjing this year. I believe Fluenz is a superior learning program in many ways, but I think the most important feature is that Fluenz insists that I learn the proper tones for the words I acquire. If I get the word right but the tone wrong, my response is considered inaccurate and I must repeat the exercise until I get the tone right. Since proper tones are the key to communicating clearly with native speakers, Fluenz is, I think, a significantly superior product.

Buy Fluenz Version F2: Mandarin 1+2+3 (Win/Mac) with software DVDs, audio CDs, podcasts, and Navigator. Learn Chinese with the latest upgrade. now for only $ 418.00!

Learn Chinese from Modern Writers: An Interactive Multimedia Language Program (China’s Modern Writers)

This cutting-edge interactive program teaches intermediate and advanced Chinese language skills through exposure to Chinese literature and culture. The CD introduces students to five leading modern Chinese writers — Ba Jin, Mao Dun, Ding Ling, Cao Yu, and Ai Qing — through video interview footage. The companion workbook, sold separately, is a guide to the CD that provides additional writing practice for each activity, along with Chinese-Pinyin-English vocabulary lists and glossary, and transcripts of CD text in both English and Chinese.System Requirements: Pentium-based PC or compatible; Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP; Quick Time 3.0 or higher; 32 MB RAM; 640 x 480 256 color-display; CD-ROM drive; Sound card and speakers; Microphone; (no need to install a Chinese language system).

List Price: $ 125.50
Price: $ 12.00

Penpower Chinese Expert Standard Version

Penpower Chinese Expert Standard Version is a complete Chinese learning tool. You can utilize all the listening, reading, speaking, writing, and translation features and learn Chinese fast and easy. It also provides online and offline activation. Let you learn Chinese anytime and anywhere. • Three Main Interfaces The three main user-friendly interfaces are designed to help users access and understand the functions of Penpower Chinese Expert, making learning Chinese easier and faster. • Handwriting recognition Our software can recognize any stroke order when writing a character—no particular stroke order is required. It can even recognize near-illegible writing. It can also be used together with software application such as Office 2007/XP. You can use the writing pad to edit an existing file or create a new document with ease. • Unicode recognition Support Unicode system to display Traditional and Simplified Chinese easily.

• Listening: Employ the latest TTS (Text to Speech) to let you listen to correct pronunciation of single characters, phrases or sentences. Export TTS or your recording to WMA file. Let you review real pronunciation any time and enhance listening.
• Reading: Have hard time to read Chinese ? Copy some article from internet, our software will show you everything about unknown Chinese characters such as their pinyin/zhuyin, their radicals, total number of strokes etc. and their meaning in English.
• Speaking: With our speech recognition technology, you can practice speaking Chinese phrases or taking quizes with your PC and be confident that you will sound more and more like a native Chinese speaker. Let you Learn Chinese anytime anywhere.
• Writing: Show you how to write any Chinese character in the correct stroke order.
• Translation: Use a state-of-the-art machine translation module for your exploration of the Chinese language. You can translate between Chinese and English by word, phrases or whole sentences.

Price: $ 76.24

WINK TO LEARN Chinese Character Flash Card 6 DVD SET – for Toddlers, Kids, Children

Give your children the gift of Chinese language! Experts tell us language acquisition is simple for young children to master. In fact, they can master many languages at once through sound-based accelerated learning methods. ****** WINK to LEARN Chinese Language DVDs utilize the latest sound-based learning technologies that enable your children to easily recognize Mandarin Chinese characters and speak phrases. ****** Sound-based learning is an important right brain learning tool that incorporates the subtleties of patterns, rhythm, frequencies, tone, pitch and accents. Young children are easily able to synthesize these subtleties through their right brain functions with no effort. That’s why WINK to LEARN Chinese DVD set is the best you’ll find for teaching your children the Chinese language – quickly and effortlessly! ****** Each of the 36 lessons on the six DVDs gently guides your children through several thematic topics including: Parts of the Body, Animals, Foods, Action, Numbers, Nature, Personal Belongings, Colors, Household Items, Stationary, Shops, Opposites, Flags, Countries, Marine Creatures, Self-Introduction, “My House”, Sentences, and more. ******”Having numerous years of experience in child education and training, It’s always refreshing and mind-expanding to be constantly reminded of the power of a child’s mind and its unlimited potential to learn. WINKtoLEARN Chinese DVD program is based on a well-researched progressive learning system that taps into the mind’s potential and activates your child’s linguistic ability to master Chinese at an early age.” – Kevin Tan, Certified NLP Trainer (ABNLP), BSC (Hons.), PGDE (Education) ****** “We love this product! My 10-month-old and I enjoy this DVD program so much together because of the beautiful pictures. My 4-year-old daughter has learned to read using flashcards. She is able to read as well as children twice her age.” – Mdm. Ang, mother of three, Singapore

• Children can Learn Mandarin Chinese Effortlessly!
• Hundreds of Beautiful Natural Images and Movie Clips with Seperate Related Chinese Characters and Pronunciation
• Alternating High-Speed Right Brain Training Lessons
• Six-DVD Set with Six Levels of Learning in 36 Lessons
• Lessons Cover Several Topics Including: Body, Animals, Colors, Nature, Foods, Etc.

Price: $ 79.98

Speak & Learn Chinese (Mandarin) [Game Download]

Speak & Learn Chinese is the fast, fun, and easy way to start speaking with confidence! Over 700 words and phrases with strong visuals and animations that help you learn quickly. Learning a language has never been this much fun!

List Price: $ 9.99
Price: $ 9.99

ECTACO iTRAVL NTL-2Ch Chinese & English Electronic Talking Translator Dictionary and Ultimate Travel PhraseBook plus the downloadable LingvoSoft Chinese Translation Software Platinum pack (0 value) as a Free gift!

English Chinese electronic text translator talking dictionary and Ultimate Travel Tool ECTACO iTRAVL NTL-2Ch

* 308 300 words English Chinese bidirectional talking dictionary
* Reliable and accurate 2-way Full-text Machine Translation (of any phrase or text) with English voice output
* Travel Voice PhraseBook translates and speaks 14 000 phrases using native-speaker voice narration
* The worlds most sophisticated Speech Recognition that understands exactly what you say and provides instant translation of words and phrases
* iHELP pronounces emergency or frequently used phrases instantly
* Indispensable travel resources that include Fodor Travel Guide CIA World Factbook and Travel AudioBooks
* 70 000 WordNet English explanatory dictionary
* Hands free voice navigation and hi-res touch screen for easy access to information
* Extended functionality and responsiveness powered by Windows CE
* Mp3 player games calculator metric converter and word time clock utilities

Detailed maps with destination advice and addresses will help you find your way around in no time. The inclusion of the world-renowned Fodor Travel Guide lets you benefit from expert advice on hotels restaurants local attractions and transportation. Equipped with the CIA World Factbook detailed information for 180 countries around the world: Maps Flags Country Profiles People Geography History Economy Essential Statistics International Organizations.

• Electronic talking dictionaries (308,300 words) : English <-> Chinese; Chinese <-> English
• English-Chinese-English Full-text Machine Translation
• English and Chinese human native speaker voice for all 14 000 phrases in the Audio PhraseBook
• English and Chinese speech recognition for the phrasebook: simply speak a phrase in English language and the device pronounces the translation in Chinese!
• Buy this electronic talking dictionary today and receive the LingvoSoft Chinese Platinum Software pack for Free!

Rating: (out of 1 reviews)

List Price: $ 499.95
Price: $ 379.95

ECTACO iTRAVL NTL-2Ch Chinese & English Electronic Talking Translator Dictionary and Ultimate Travel PhraseBook plus the downloadable LingvoSoft Chinese Translation Software Platinum pack (0 value) as a Free gift! Reviews

Buy ECTACO iTRAVL NTL-2Ch Chinese & English Electronic Talking Translator Dictionary and Ultimate Travel PhraseBook plus the downloadable LingvoSoft Chinese Translation Software Platinum pack (0 value) as a Free gift! now for only $ 379.95!

Learn Chinese Now! 9.0

Learn Language Now! is an immersion program that enables learners take basic vocabulary and quickly progress to more advanced comprehension and use. Grammar, vocabulary, reading, listening, pronunciation skills, and more are emphasized through the use of native language texts, videos, and stories that immerse the user in the foreign language and provide opportunities for language investigation, skill-building and role play.

Engaged in this rich multimedia experience, you may never feel like you’re studying, and the fact that you are actually using another language becomes transparent.With the modern PC having a variety of possibilities of which traditional language-learning methods could only dream–voice recognition, video dialogues, and so on–the past few years have seen an extraordinary boom in language-learning software packages. However, as picking through this surfeit can be tricky, it is important to find a reliable brand, and the Learn Now! series is definitely among the best software packages. The program comes equipped with 2 CDs, one of which has various key sections–useful “survival phrases”, fun activities, conversations, and practicing speech against the voice of a native speaker–while the other has a thorough grammar tutorial. This combination is certainly a valuable one for people who are serious about learning a language, and the product is clear and easy to use: in role-plays, phrases are highlighted in a box and their English translations placed underneath, while the voice recognition software allows you to measure your own voice against that of a native speaker, and the games hone the things that have been learnt. Sections are tailored to various activities, such as getting around, going out, and business situations, while at any point you can call up a grammar tutorial which explains a particular point on which you are unsure. In addition to these sections, the part on survival phrases will be of much

• Over 15,000 Words. Hundreds of Useful Phrases
• Full Motion “Big Picture” Video
• Full Native Speaker Pronunciation
• SlowSound to Hear Every Nuance
• Advanced Pronunciation Practice

Rating: (out of 10 reviews)

List Price: $ 39.99
Price: $ 28.86

Leapfrog Clickstart Educational Software: Ni Hao, Kai – Lan

Explore the outdoors, light lanterns, collect sun fuzzies, watch fireworks and celebrate with Kai-lan and friends! Five festive activities light the way to learning Mandarin vocabulary, shapes, counting, letters, colors and computer navigation skills. ClickStartTM My First Computer turns your family TV into a learning PC! Featuring a child-friendly wireless keyboard, a console and a mouse that converts for right- or left-handed play, ClickStart My First Computer creates a safe computing environment right on your television. Parents can connect to the online LeapFrog® Learning Path for customized learning ideas and insights from LeapFrog.\n\n \n\nTeaches:\n\n – Mandarin vocabulary\n\n – Shapes\n\n – Alphabet\n\n – Counting\n\n – Colors\n\nComputer Skills \n – QWERTY keyboarding\n\n – Mousing\n

• Click start my first computer turns your family TV into a learning PC
• Explore Chinese culture and language with Kai-lan and her friends in 5 super adventures
• Find familiar shapes in the objects of Kai-lan’s world, help set the table for the tea party, click matching shapes to light lanterns for the festival
• Teaches Mandarin vocabulary, the alphabet, shapes, counting, colors and computer skills such as Qwerty keyboarding and mousing
• Parents can connect to the online LeapFrog Learning Path for customized learning ideas and insights from LeapFrog

Rating: (out of 3 reviews)

List Price: $ 19.99
Price: $ 5.80